@ Your Library
As February comes to an end, we hope that March comes in like a lion, so that it will go out like a lamb. We are ready for the weather to change. I’d also not mind if it did it quickly so the mud season is short. I have plenty to read while it is the ugly mud season outside. I am finally getting to The Black Wolf by Louise Penny, the 20th book in her very popular Chief Inspector Gamache series. I love books with librarians and The Librarians by Sherry Thomas which has four librarians in a small rural librarian with secrets that begin to come out after a murder in the building is available. I’ve also been wanting to read The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens about another librarian with secrets. I think we all have secrets, some just cost more than others. I’m also beginning to read titles to recommend to kids this spring and summer to encourage them to read daily.
Kids in elementary school need to turn in their winter reading logs to their teachers next week. When they get back from spring break we should have cookies ready for each kid who finished and we’ll be able to announce which class had the highest percentage of finishers to win a t-shirt for each of them.
Parents, grandparents and any others who love to read, I just read about a study that showed it is important to keep reading aloud to kids after they can read themselves. Kids who were read to after they could read had higher levels of empathy and creativity than kids who weren’t. So grab a book and spend time reading together. It makes us all better humans. And discover for yourself some of the amazing junior room books.
The library needs to change our Hoopla subscription. Library card holders with a Hoopla account will now only be able to borrow six titles a month. The library offers two options to patrons who want to borrow e-books and digital audiobooks. Libby is available to all Arrowhead Library System patrons with accounts in good standing. Items are selected by librarians and purchased monthly. For each item purchased one patron can use it at a time. This can mean significant wait times for popular titles. And that is one of the reasons we added Hoopla for our library patrons. We do not select the titles available, but everything in the Hoopla catalog is always available. Our hope is that using both apps will allow everyone to find something to read or listen to anytime they want. Hoopla bills the library for every item downloaded by our patrons and that is why we are limiting usage to six items a month. The last week of the month they also make available a selection of items for free for patrons who might have used up their downloads and need something to get to the beginning of the month and more downloads again.